The bulbs are popping up everywhere .... leaves are emerging from all the trees ... pretty soon you won't want to be inside for months! So ....​'Git 'er done!' Go through that dresser drawer right now!

Well, it's been a year since our last National Day of Unplugging! I didn't want to give you too much notice of this challenge, because I didn't want you to over-think it and bail on me! Just the thought of not having some sort of electronic device attached to their hand makes some folks crazy! ​ I still won't carry a cell phone unless I'm traveling away from the area and truly do believe that the insistence of being wired 24/7 is a lack of time management! Plan ahead; make your lists; know your route; low and behold: you don't have to rely on the machinery always within arms length of too many of us, way too often! Just my bid for some Civil Disobedience in a world that pushes me to be connected to any and all, all the time. "Just say 'no'!" "But what about an emergency?" frantic folks ask. The few times we have needed something like that, we were out of cell-phone coverage anyway!

When one of the founders of Twitter, Ev Williams, is on the talk-show circuit that the craziness needs to stop; when Mark Zukerberg of Facebook is having his techs work on ways to slow down the proliferation of hours and days spent on his site and others; when apps are now seen by psychology gurus as loading folks with a 'sugar hit" .... Something needs to give, right??

Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook and Google share:“Like gambling, nicotine, alcohol or heroin, Facebook and Google — most importantly through its YouTube subsidiary — produce short-term happiness with serious negative consequences in the long term.... the big Internet companies know more about you than you know about yourself, which gives them huge power to influence you, to persuade you to do things that serve their economic interests. Facebook, Google and others compete for each consumer’s attention, reinforcing biases and reducing the diversity of ideas to which each is exposed. The degree of harm grows over time.... The fault lies with advertising business models that drive companies to maximize attention at all costs, leading to ever more aggressive brain hacking.” WOW - strong stuff, right?

Tristan Harris of the non-profit "Time Well Spent" is also extremely concerned, with the company's goal to “stop technology platforms from hijacking our minds, and to start putting our best interests first”

So, can I dare you to turn off all your electronics and just see what it's like to have TWO HANDS FREE for only 24 hours, starting tonight at sunset, through tomorrow at sunset? Go outside; have coffee, face-to-face with a friend; read a book! I'd love to know of your survival rate for this challenge, OK? Just email me from here, if you'd like. I'll share comments in a future newsletter!

Here's to the beginning of your recognition that we need to take back our brains!